README.textile

NEW IN CHIPMUNK 7

ABOUT:

Chipmunk2D is a simple, lightweight, fast and portable 2D rigid body physics library written in C. It’s licensed under the unrestrictive, OSI approved MIT license. My aim is to give 2D developers access to the same quality of physics you find in newer 3D games. I hope you enjoy using Chipmunk2D!

CONTRACTING:

Howling Moon Software (my company) is available for contracting if you want to make the physics in your game really stand out. Given our unique experience with the library, we can help you use Chipmunk to its fullest potential. Feel free to contact us through our webpage: http://howlingmoonsoftware.com/

BUILDING:

Mac OS X: There is an included Xcode project file for building the static library and demo application. Alternatively you could use the CMake files or the macstatic.command script inside the xcode/ directory to build a static lib and package up the headers for you.

iPhone: A native Objective-C API is included. The Xcode project can build a static library with all the proper compiler settings. Alternatively, you can just run iphonestatic.command in the xcode/ directory. It will build you a fat library compiled as release for the device and debug for the simulator. After running it, you can simply drop the Chipmunk-iOS directory into your iPhone project!

UNIXes: A forum user was kind enough to make a set of CMake files for Chipmunk. This will require you to have CMake installed. To build run ‘cmake .’ then ‘make’. This should build a dynamic library, a static library, and the demo application. A number of people have had build errors on Ubuntu due to not having GLUT or libxmu installed.

Windows: Visual Studio projects are included in the msvc/ directory. While I try to make sure the MSVC 10 project is up to date, I don’t have MSVC 9 to keep that project updated regularly. It may not work. I’d appreciate a hand fixing it if that’s the case.

GET UP TO DATE:

If you got the source from a point release download, you might want to consider getting the latest source from GitHub. Bugs are fixed and new features are added regularly. Big changes are done in branches and tested before merging them in it’s rare for the point release downloads to be better or more bug free than the latest code.

Head on over to GitHub and experience the future TODAY! (Okay, so maybe it’s not that exciting.)

GETTING STARTED:

First of all, you can find the C API documentation in the doc/ directory.

A good starting point is to take a look at the included Demo application. The demos all just set up a Chipmunk simulation space and the demo app draws the graphics directly out of that. This makes it easy to see how the Chipmunk API works without worrying about the graphics code. You are free to use the demo drawing routines in your own projects, though it is certainly not the recommended way of drawing Chipmunk objects as it pokes around at the undocumented/private APIs of Chipmunk.

SUPPORT:

The best way to get support is to visit the Chipmunk Forums. There are plenty of people around using Chipmunk on the just about every platform I’ve ever heard of. If you are working on a commercial project and want some more direct help, Howling Moon Software is also available for contracting.